Referring to FIG. 1, the following first describes a laminated ceramic capacitor 1, which is a representative example of a laminated ceramic electronic component according to the present invention.
Laminated ceramic capacitor 1 includes a laminate 2 including a plurality of laminated ceramic layers 3 and a plurality of internal electrodes 4 and 5 formed along interfaces between ceramic layers 3.
A first external electrode 8 and a second external electrode 9 are formed at different locations on an external surface of laminate 2. In laminated ceramic capacitor 1 shown in FIG. 1, first external electrode 8 and second external electrode 9 are respectively formed on opposite end surfaces 6 and 7 of laminate 2. The internal electrodes 4 and 5 are arranged such that the plurality of first internal electrodes 4 are electrically connected to first external electrode 8 and the plurality of second internal electrodes 5 are electrically connected to second external electrode 9. These first internal electrodes 4 and second internal electrodes 5 are disposed alternately in the lamination direction. On the surfaces of external electrodes 8 and 9, first metal plating layers 10, 11, and second metal plating layers 12, 13 are formed as required. For internal electrodes 4 and 5, a base metal such as Ni is used for the purpose of cost reduction.
As a dielectric ceramic used for ceramic layer 3, various dielectric ceramics can be selected in accordance with required characteristics, such as permittivity. For example, a dielectric ceramic described in Patent Document 1 is known.
This dielectric ceramic is a sintered body containing at least two types of perovskite type barium calcium titanate zirconate crystal grains (BCTZ type crystal grains) in which a part of A site is substituted by Ca and a part of B site is substituted by Zr. One of the two types of the BCTZ type crystal grains is BCTZ type crystal grain (1) expressed as [(Ba1-xCax)m(Ti1-yZry)O3], where 0.15≦x≦0.25, 0.15≦y<0.20, and 1.000<m. The other one is BCTZ type crystal grain (2) expressed as [(Ba1-zCaz)n(Ti1-sZrs)O3], where 0≦z≦0.08, 0.01≦s≦0.10, and 1.000<n. Each of BCTZ type crystal grain (1) and BCTZ type crystal grain (2) is characterized by having an average grain size of 0.15 to 0.7 μm.